Archive for June, 2017

Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) have signed a pact affirming the intent to join hands to produce F-16 Block 70 fighter planes in India. The announcement comes days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to Washington for a meeting with Donald Trump on June 26. “This unprecedented F-16 production partnership between the […]

India became the 71st country on Monday to join the United Nations TIR Convention, the international customs transit system, to position itself as a regional trading and transit hub. The TIR system is the international customs transit system with the widest geographical coverage.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım will make a working visit to Greece on June 19 at the invitation of Greek his counterpart Alexis Tsipras, ahead of Cyprus reunification talks in Switzerland. During his visit to Athens, Prime Minister Yıldırım will be received by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. Yıldırım’s visit is taking place ahead of a […]

Mali’s foreign minister on Friday pressed the UN Security Council to quickly adopt a resolution endorsing the creation of a special force to fight the jihadists increasingly plaguing north Africa’s Sahel region. The minister, Abdoulaye Diop, expressed the “deep concern” of Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who heads a five-nation regional grouping known as the […]

Islamic extremists who stormed a resort area in Mali popular with foreigners killed five people, including a Portuguese soldier who had been serving in the European Union mission to stabilize this West African country wracked by mounting extremism, authorities said on Monday. The death toll rose after a Malian soldier who was wounded in the […]

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nafees Zakaria in statement said that there have been numerous meetings held by regional countries to address the rising influence of Daesh and other terrorist organizations in Afghanistan. He added the war-like situation in Afghanistan is going on for the last 40 years, and has given space to non-state actors and […]

China and Pakistan on Friday agreed to improve security and anti-terrorism cooperation, to guarantee the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The agreement came out of a meeting between Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Pakistan’s Chairman of the Joint […]

Belgian F-16 fighter jets will be operating over Iraq and Syria until the end of this year, Belgian media reported Friday quoting Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. Belgium will allocate 17 million euro (USD 19 million) for the operation.

Daesh terrorist group is holding more than 100,000 civilians as human shields in the old city of Mosul in Iraq, said a UN official on Friday. “More than 100,000 civilians are still being held in the old city,” Bruno Geddo, the UN refugee agency (U.N.H.C.R.) representative in Iraq said during a press conference in Geneva.

New Europol report warns that the Balkan region remains vulnerable to Islamist terrorism – and remains a well-established route to and from the conflict zones for terrorist fighters. The EU’s annual Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, released June 15, says terrorists are still joining the conflict in Syria from the Balkans, which remains a route […]

French President Emmanuel Macron was in Morocco on Wednesday on a 24-hour visit for talks on battling terrorism as well as the Libyan conflict and Qatar’s dispute with its Gulf neighbours. As he stepped off the plane for his first visit to Morocco since his election in May, the French president, his wife Brigitte at […]

France’s foreign minister said on Thursday he was confident “we will get there” in convincing a reluctant United States to give United Nations backing to an anti-jihadist force drawn from five African countries. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, which make up the so-called G5 Sahel, have agreed to set up a special counter-terrorism […]

The European Union has announced a support package of nearly $160m for recovery and reconstruction in Nigeria’s Borno state, which has been devastated by attacks from homegrown Islamic extremist group Boko Haram. The EU said on Thursday the northeastern state is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis. The United Nations has called Nigeria one of four […]

Iraqi forces on Tuesday reported progress in the US-backed campaign to dislodge Daesh from Mosul, announcing the capture of a district just north the city’s historic centre. With the loss of the Zanjili neighbourhood, the enclave still held by Daesh in the northern Iraqi city has shrunk to two districts along the western banks of […]

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Monday to allow the European Union’s (EU) maritime force to seize illegal weapons off Libya’s coast for another year, a move aimed at helping restore peace to the deeply divided north African nation. The British-drafted resolution authorises EU ships in Operation Sophia to stop vessels on the high […]

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that he will visit Qatar on Wednesday as part of Turkey’s mediation efforts to solve the recent Gulf crisis. Speaking at a press conference with Burundi foreign minister on Tuesday, Çavuşoğlu said he might visit Saudi Arabia as well and that the Turkish side is waiting for the Saudis […]

Iraqi and Syrian military top brass discussed in Baghdad on Tuesday ways to establish a joint coordination center and enhance cooperation in the field of border security. The meeting between Syrian military delegation, including chief of the operations dept., and Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army Lt.-Gen. Othman Al-Ghanemi led to a consensus that […]

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the new Prime Minister of Macedonia Zoran Zaev to NATO headquarters on Monday for talks on the partnership between the Alliance and Macednia. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the NATO chief congratulated Zaev on his appointment and welcomed the formation of a new government.

A NATO membership for Western Balkan countries would provide stability in the region, but it could materialise only after the main criteria are met, gen. Kircho Kirov, former head of the National Intelligence Service, told FOCUS Radio’s Good Morning Bulgaria. Macedonia’s attempts to join the EU and NATO should be appreciated, this would make our […]

African Union chairperson Alpha Conde on Sunday put himself forward as a mediator in the crisis between Qatar and other Gulf countries, urging dialogue after several African nations also recalled their ambassadors to Doha. Conde, who is president of Guinea which has close ties to Saudi Arabia, said in a letter to King Salman he […]

The United Nations says a fourth peacekeeper from the West African nation of Guinea was killed in an attack by jihadists last week on a UN camp in northern Mali. UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Monday the peacekeeper was missing after last Thursday’s attack on the camp east of the city of Kidal […]

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Bajwa on Monday met with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz in the backdrop of a deepening diplomatic rift in the Middle East, Radio Pakistan reported. The PM ─ accompanied by General Bajwa, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Adviser to the PM […]

In his first visit to the US after the new administration took over, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks with President Donald Trump on June 26 on a range of issues, including India’s concerns over possible changes in H1B visas.

As part of its efforts to ease tension in the Gulf region, Ankara has called on all parties to come to a common solution and overcome differences to avoid a sectarian crisis in the region, which would put all countries in danger. “With all the already existing problems in the region, and particularly at a […]

A US-backed Syrian opposition force said yesterday it had captured a north-western neighbourhood of the Isil group’s de-facto capital of Raqqa, the second district to fall into their hands in days after the rebels launched a wide offensive to gain control of the extremists’ final stronghold. US military officials said they had no information to […]

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Monday called on the Northern Iraq to reconsider the planned referendum bid in September. Speaking following the cabinet meeting in Ankara, Numan Kurtulmus raised concerns regarding the independence referendum, which is supposed to be held in

US forces carried out a strike in conjunction with Somali special forces on Sunday against Al-Shabaab approximately 300km southwest of Mogadishu, according to the Pentagon. The Pentagon said the operation occurred at approximately 0600 GMT “in coordination with regional partners as a direct response to Al-Shabaab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces.”

A Nigerian official says a top Boko Haram commander was among many insurgents killed on Sunday as soldiers fought to rescue nine children being trained at a secret camp. Nigerian army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Sani Usman said on Monday that soldiers battled Boko Haram extremists in Jarawa village in Borno state. He said they killed […]

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev here on Monday said his country would advocate for the integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the European Union (EU). During its presidency of the EU Council in 2018, Bulgaria would support Sarajevo in the process of obtaining a candidate status for the EU membership, Radev said at a joint press […]

Marwan Kanafani, Former Advisor To Arafat: Palestine Cause No Longer The Most Serious Arab Issue, There Are More Syrian Refugees In a recent TV interview, Marwan Kanafani, former advisor to Yasser Arafat, blamed the Palestinian leaderships and political parties for the “regression” in the Palestinian cause, saying that the negotiations to bring about reconciliation between […]

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said that he was “ready for talks with everyone” to resolve the Kashmir issue, and will not put any conditions for the purpose. “Those who are instigating the Kashmiri youth should look upon them as their own child,” Singh said while speaking to reporters in Mumbai about the Modi […]

Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on Thursday said that the National Security Committee of the parliament would discuss in detail the situation in the Arab Peninsula in its upcoming meeting. During the National Assembly session when the issues of attack on the Iranian parliament and Gulf crisis came under discussion, the speaker proposed that […]

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, also known as the Diyanet, will train 467 Syrian imams in northern Syria, the state body said Thursday. The efforts are directed to provide appropriate religious services to Syrian residents in various cities, including Al-Bab, Jarabulus, Azaz, Mare and Al-Rai, where terrorists were eliminated following the Turkish-led Operation Euphrates Shield.

Islamic State stepped up attacks on Iraqi army positions near the border with Syria, killing seven soldiers and wounding 12 in two attacks staged on Sunday and Tuesday, military sources said. Islamic State has been fighting since October a U.S.-backed offensive in Mosul, the largest city that fell under its control in both Syria and […]

US-backed fighters battled the Daesh group on Thursday as they tried to push further into the extremists’ Syrian bastion Raqa, two days after finally entering the northern city. The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters began the battle for the city earlier this week after seven months of fighting to surround the […]